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Back from Epic cruise

Our cruise on NCL Epic ended on Sunday - already wishing I was back on the ship.
After getting advice from you guys and much worrying about which cruise, ship, etc. I choose NCL Epic for a 7 day Caribbean cruise. It was a gift to DD and nearly five year old GD. It came down to a ship that offered lots for the little one, limited smoking areas and direct, affordable flights to the port.

Reviews of this ship on CC ranged from fabulous to terrible on every level from food to service, so I had some concerns. My experience:

Highly recommend this ship for great family activities, good service, entertainment and excellent food.
Personal pref: I like more traditional ships with true promenade decks and open central spaces. I would do this ship again, however, for great weather and food.

Ship: This is a ship for families, not pretty from the outside, and not an elegant ship.
OK inside, but no wow factor like the beautiful stairways and atrium on Crown Princess.
Great water and play areas for kids and families! Water slides, hot tubs, rock climbing, etc.
Variety of seating for buffet was very nice.
Bands and music near pools was loud for me.
Dinning rooms: fewer large tables, so you could be seated just with your own family, but somewhat crowded feeling.
Top deck of ship had huge area with lots of beds and seating for adults desiring quiet or napping outside.
Many parts of ship seemed like one, long connected room surrounding casino. It did not seem open and spacious.
Very little smoking anywhere.

Cabins: we had inside. Did not mind the layout. It gave the feeling of spaciousness, but was small by any standard. Storage good, beds, OK. Liked having cotton duvet covers rather than bed spreads. Felt softer and more sanitary. Everything white - nice.

Some things, like deck chairs, are looking worn and need sprucing up.
Carpets and other chairs looked fine.

Embarkation, etc. efficient and fast at all times.

Staff and service:
the hardest working staff I have seen on any ship. They were too busy to have any chatting time, but they were courteous and helpful. By the second day, many knew my GD's name and said "Hello, Princess Grace," every time they saw her. The cabin stewart made towel animals for her every day and let her keep them. By the end of the trip, she had a rabbit, elephant, pig, dog, etc.

There were complaints about slow service in the main dining rooms, but we did not find it so. As a matter of fact, they asked if we were going to a show, and offered to rush things.

Food:
Complaints were totally unfounded. There was a great variety in buffet and main dinning rooms. As a matter of fact, I thought the food was better than on Princess or Celebrity! There was a different specialty meat station every day at the buffet: prime rib, roast turkey, lobster tails, etc. many wonderful salads, and ethnic specialties every day. Indian (which DD said was as good as her favorite NYC restaurants), Asian, Mexican, etc. Ice cream was especially good, with many flavors and toppings, plus soft serve. Fantastic yeast breads were served in the main dining rooms. We had several different steaks and prime rib in main dinning rooms, and all were excellent. If your children are terribly picky and do not eat salads and veggies, it may be harder. GD lived on watermelon, steaks, pizza, Broccoli, hot dogs and ice cream.

Entertainment: very much dependent on taste.
I prefer more classical music, especially piano.
Loved Second City - clever and fun
Hated Legends - too loud and except for the Elvis, who I did like, not my taste in music
Blue Man - boring to me, but little GD loved it, so it appealed to a five year old.
Cirque d'Dreams - absolutely loved it and worth every penny. Beautiful space, fabulous costumes, exciting up close, creative, etc. food was perfect: filet mignon with peppercorn sauce. Excellent service.

I would prefer not to have to make reservations, but it did insure you had a seat.
Be aware, you should make them before the cruise, not wait until you are on the ship, although most of the time, there was still space when we did not reserve or were late.

Many people complained about some things costing extra, but I did not see anything unusual except for specialty restaurants and Cirque. That was fine by me. If I did not want something more, I did not have to pay for it.

Kids program: I had read one review of it as being horrible, so was concerned. Well, that was so not true. At least for children age three to about ten, this ship does a fantastic job! The staff was kind and loving and fantastic. Little GD had a great time. Every evening they had a different theme with face painting, games, dances, parties, etc. We paid extra for a pajama breakfast, which we would not bother with again. The free things were actually better.

Ship stores: basics like deodorants, etc. expensive. Clothes and other things were reasonable. This was the first time I bought things on a ship, but got birthday gifts and jewelry.

Photographers: not nearly so intrusive as on other ships. Crazy thing, I did do a private sitting of little GD, and the photos were so outstanding, I bought a huge package. Both of the studio photographers had been graphic designers and were real pros, especially with a child.

Ports: We just went to beaches and relaxed.
Really like Paradise beach in Cozumel. It is pretty, with a beautiful pool, lots of shade, many large floats in the water, good food, worth the cost of taxi to get there, beach is free.
Margaritaville in Ochios Rios is tacky and not too clean, but we made some nice friends and hung out with them during rest of cruise.
Too windy to dock in Costa Mayo.

Quote from GD. "I do not want to go to the Ocean. There are sharks and things to hurt me. I only like ships and beaches. On my cruise next year, I will do room service." She is already a confirmed cruiser.
She never quite understood that the ship was actually floating in the ocean, and her Mom did not want to eat in the cabin, so did not do room service.

DD said not having to worry about buying food or cooking was the best part.

All in all, the cruise did exactly what I hoped, gave us a lovely break together. I could ask for nothing more.

Thanks for the report. About to take a cruise on the Betaway and it has been a while since we cruised on NCL.

Not sure exactly what you meant when you said you would do it again on this (particular)ship for great weather but perhaps I am misunderstanding your intent.

I'm anxious to view the interior of the Getaway. We are sailing mainly because we have a friend who is doing some of the entertainment. We are more used to the so-called "wow factors" that come on RCCL ships with the soaring atria, glass elevators, etc., etc., etc., but in the end there's much more to it all than that as you know.

I keep hearing about all the smoke from the casino which drifts into other public spaces on the Getaway...so much for "limited smoking" I suppose.

Thank you for posting your report as I know how much time and effort it takes to do so.

Dukey1, oh silly of me. We had such yucky weather this winter in Baltimore, that we hungered for warm and sunny weather. A ship with good outside areas was important, and Epic has that. Since I did not find the inside areas beautiful, I would not enjoy this ship on a cruise where you could not be outside all the time. It is fine for itineraries where your time is spent in places with warm weather. I would not enjoy this ship on say, an Atlantic crossing if the weather was chilly and I had to be inside most of the time, while on Crown Princess, I like the inside of the ship so much, I did not mind being inside. Make more sense now?

Sass, love your report and glad to hear that it is mission accomplished with DD and GD.

Been to Ocho Rios twice and did not find it as nice as other Caribbean stops. Not surprised at your Margaritaville comment.

"On my cruise next year, I will do room service." I guess your GD is already looking forward to another cruise with GM next year! Gotta to love it when they want to travel with you. Here is a compromise. Call room service for breakfast in bed.

I too, like Larry, was surprised at your comments regarding the food. My knock on NCL was inconsistency on quality and service in general (not specifically only about only). When they are on their game, they are as good as Carnival and RCL.

We will be on the Legend in 12 days and the latest reviews on cc are great. This will be our 3 rd cruise on CCL and I hope it's on a par with the other two. Let's c how it compares to the Equonox. But that will be a tall order. That was the best food we've ever had on the ship. We are just looking forward to getting into some sun and getting away for a while. As Sue said the winter was a miserable one and were really looking forward to just getting some sunshine

Sorry about so many miss-spellings in my TR, guess I was still tired. Thanks for reading it.

I did not think Epic came close to Princess or Celebrity for the beauty of the ship, and with so many families, furnishings get pretty intense use.

It was food, especially, that was outstanding followed by entertainment, water play areas, kids programs and service.

I think we lucked out because inconsistency does seem to be a problem from cruise to cruise.

Larry, for us, the kids areas were most important. For you, I think ports might be more important. I know food is.

I suggested breakfast in bed to DD, but she is someone who is always on the go and did not want to eat in the room. I think the cabin was a little tight for her. She needs a window. We will try for a balcony next time.

Again I'm glad you had a good time. The new Norwegians ships the getaway class look really good to me. I hope one of these days we find an itinerary on that ship that we like. Do you have any plans yet for another cruise?

DH wants to do a TA because they are so cheap and you get the experience of the ship, but I want to stay longer in one or two places and do more sightseeing. If we could swing the cost of a baltic, I would love to do that, but nothing planned right now.

I enjoyed your review. We looked the Epic but didn't go with it. It did seem like it was more geared towards families and we don't have kids. It sounds like you have a little traveler with you, already making plans for her next trip.

Travelenthusiast, IMO, you are correct. It is not a ship DH and I would choose for ourselves. I much prefer ships that I think are prettier with a long promenade deck. Epic does have some nice adult areas, and some good shows, but still more of a family ship, and it does a great job of kiddies programs, plus the water sports stuff.

Pink_fatamorge, it was perfect for what we wanted - a nice trip for the little one with some things for us.

Travelenthusiast,
I disagree ... sorta. I would say they catered to pretty much everyone. Yes, there were plenty of families. But by no means was the ship overrun by families. There were plenty of couples (young and old) along with singles like me. In fact, it's one of the few ships with single studios and has a dedicated lounge for them, although I stayed in a regular room. They also did a good job of keeping the kids occupied, and it wasn't hard to find adult-only and quiet areas on the ship.

Andrews is quite right. Sorry, I completely forgot about the singles cabins on the Epic. They even have a lounge for the singles area, and I do remember from the roll call on cruise critic that there were a lot of singles.

Thank you for the report Sass. We just told my elderly parents this past weekend that we are treating them to a trip to Europe and a cruise on the Epic at the end of August. While we like the style of Princess boats, I quickly booked the Epic thru Costco travel and the choices were limited, especially for cruising the Med.

I had read concerns about the bathroom layout in the rooms but since we will have a different room from our parents' it should not be a concern.

I am sorry I did not get back to you, but guess it would not have mattered because you had already booked the cruise. I did not too much care for the Epic's European itinerary because, while the stops are wonderful, the sights are not close to most of the ports and August is a very hot and crowded time for those ports. However, I have been to all those places in August and enjoyed them and Europe had a rather cool summer thus year, I think. Also, you were together with your parents, and it would be easier to book something for your little group, so I am sure it worked out. Did you have a good time? I hope the food and entertainment was as good as what we experienced.

Sass, great report. Glad to hear food quality is good. It's been a few years since I've been on NCL due to a couple of not so good experiences in a row, mostly food and service related. Obviously, they have changed. Maybe it is time to give them a try again.

Like you, I am not too keen on their lay out if the ship. The color scheme is too loud for my taste.